A large percentage of TTAG’s Armed Intelligentsia love the wilderness—even when they’re not using their firearms to blast Bambi to smithereens. And eat him. These gun owners savor their separation from society and the immersion in Mother Nature’s natural wonders. Which includes a number of creature that want to kill you and eat you. Not to mention the two-legged killers. Or potential killers. Oh what the heck, let’s mention one. Here’s the 411 [via newsfeed.time.com] on a Utah mountain man who’s taken home invasion to the next level . . .

Said to be “armed and dangerous” by authorities, he’s covered more than 1,000 sq. m. of wilderness and is responsible for more than two dozen burglaries of luxury cabins near Zion National Park. He’s not just quietly stealing things, either, but, rather, leaving a mark — he left a note in one cabin, warning, “Get off my mountain.”

The malcontent mugger has also been leaving cabins in “disarray and riddled with bullets” and seems to enjoy defacing religious icons. “He’s antireligious, waiting for the mother ship to come in,” one cabin owner, Bruce Stucki, told the Associated Press. “He should know he’s being followed, but I don’t think this guy is normal in any way.”

What’s most frightening about all of this, of course, is the fact that these cabins are so isolated. “He could stand in the trees and pop you off and no one would know who killed you,” Stucki told the Associated Press.

Which could never happen in an urban area right? And here’s scribe Aylan Zafar’s solution: “If you’re planning one last winter getaway before spring approaches and your destination is somewhere in southern Utah’s wilderness, you might want to take an extra dead bolt for your door.” Make that “AR” and I’m good to go. Right?

About Robert Farago

Robert Farago is the Publisher of The Truth About Guns (TTAG). He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns.

Something a lot of urban folks don’t understand about the isolated wilds of America is that they are ISOLATED. In a city crime may suck and you never what evil awaits around the next corner, but if you dial 911 in a city the authorities will probably get to you inside of an hour. In rural America dialing 911 is paperwork formality so that when the gunfight’s over the cops can bring the right number of bodybags.

Retreating to the wilderness has its charms, but you’d best be prepared to operate without any of the charms of city life, including timely medical and police response.

I saw a short NatGeo series a while back called Frontier Force; I believe it followed Montana State PD. It was interesting that every time they got a call, the point was made that their destination was thirty to sixty minutes away, minimum, with lights and sirens. Definitely a different type of living.

So far, all of this bozo’s crimes have been against property. I didn’t see anything in the article about home invasions, only burglaries. There’s a difference between the two crimes, both in law and in fact. It seems that this desperado has avoided people so far, but any burglary can turn “hot” PDQ. The “authorities” need to catch this guy before he escalates.

BTW, stealing coffee and liquor should be a hanging offense. Also stealing TP.

This George Hayduke wanna-be never would have been noticed if he only helped himself to some drinking water and the occasional can of Dinty Moore Beef Stew. He become a menace when he started threatening people and gratuitously trashing their houses, and now they’ll catch him eventually.

He’s figured out how to vandalize vacant summer cabins (probably not too challenging) but he’ll have a harder time evading FLIR-equipped helicopters and tracking dogs. Eric Rudolph was a fanatic’s folk hero for a while, until police found him scavenging for food in a dumpster.

…After five years or so, even though they knew what national forest he was hiding in.

People used to say, “So where’s Bin Laden?” during OIF as a way of taking a shot at the Bush Administration. I would tell them the Eric Rudolph story, for the ones still capable of independent thought it was eye-opening to them how long someone willing to be off the grid can stay missing even in the United States.

And then there’s Whitey Bulger. Very easy to stay missing when the government doesn’t want you found.

This guy is a rare specimen. With lots of miles logged in some fairly wild places, almost to a one the (few) people you encounter there would give you their last Cliff Bar. Well, maybe they’d share it with you. That said, my P229 was comforting to have when two cougars dropped onto the trail in front of me, probably heading away from a forest fire. Funny thing, they high tailed it when I hit the decock lever.

In my experience, you’re far less likely to have trouble in the high country. It’s just that if you do, it easily becomes major trouble. It’s best to have a gun for whatever, or whoever, might want to give you that trouble.

We don’t have a problem with “heavy tree canopy” in the Zions park area. We do however have large numbers of canyons & alcoves in the canyons. Some of the canyons are so narrow a helicopter would have to hover above it, making it so that FLIR might have trouble seeing you because the canyon is so deep & you have an alcove to hide in. I figure several hundred feed of sand stone might block some of your heat signature also if you have a thermal blanket for forest fires I’d think that would impact the FLIR not finding you as well.

This could just as easily happen in any major city or rural area, need I remind anyone of such infamous personages as “The Night-Stalker” the “Son of Sam” the “Zodiac Killer” the “Beltway Snipers” or any of the hundreds of incidences of violent crime that occur daily in major cities throughout our country?

Incidents like this simply highlight the need of the individual to own and carry firearms for personal protection. Police represent a small fraction of our nations population, really an infinitesimal one and the bottom line is that if no-one with the will, capability and/or moral imperative (as granted by the right to self-defense, the second amendment or state, federal or local authorities) is actually a witness to the crime in progress there’s no way to actually stop said crime. And if you’re not someone who carries or exercises common sense personal protective measures, such as running the f**k away or shooting (possibly even first) then you will be the victim, end of story.

Hell some of the owners of those “luxury” cabins may in fact be law-abiding and willing practitioners of CCW and might even be up for a little DGU, but since it doesn’t seem that “the lights have been on” or that anyone’s been home for these little “home invasions” as it were even being armed isn’t going to do you any good. Since there’s no descriptions and this article seems to indicate that all crimes have been against property really this guy is just a perfect cautionary tale at this point.

Go out to your local FFL, purchase a weapon of some kind, secure a permit to carry concealed in accordance with local and state laws and then head to the range and become proficient with and detached from the effects of your new personal protection tool… Problem solved, problem staying solved.

The mass media story (yeah, I know it’s the mass media) that I read about this guy stated that the wild man is getting increasingly hostile and destructive of people’s property. At first he would break-in and cook hot food, maybe wash-up, etc. Now, he is leaving notes to the residents to get-off ‘his mountain’ and is defecating onto pans left on the floor, etc things he did not do before.

This guy is quite different from most. He is a surviver, he knows how to
move about in the wild. Very dangerous type. You can arm yourself all you like….this guy can take you out anytime he wants! Just be glad that he really seems to only want to break into remote empty cabins. This is what we are producing from our justice system in this country. Take a kid who does wrong.
Throw him in jail….woops that didn’t work…..throw him in prison! Now that
he has a record, is on probation, parole etc. and couldn’t get a job if he wanted… and you have him so clipped he can never ever fly again. So sometimes a young man may decide to disappear into the wilderness and live off the land. That’s really not entirely possible for a very long time …creature comforts you know. But now that they know who he is….law enforcement agencies of every kind will be out to get this bad boy! 100’s of lawmen. They will spend plenty of your tax dollars. And they will use all that new equipment they have available to track him down. They will show him who is the boss. They will all be hoping to get him in their cross-hairs. My guess. He won’t surrender. They will kill him.
He doesn’t have much time left now.